Book Review – Richard Branson Way

“A man who never made a mistake, never made anything” – Richard Branson.

that quote inspires me! I relate to it in the fact that I am taking risks, many of which people think I am crazy to do. But I think to myself, I only live once, and if I make a mistake, then who cares, I learn, I move on, lesson learned and I’ll be a better person the next day.

So while traveling, I picked up the book “Business the Richard Branson Way”, and it was definitely a great read! Not a long book, so I can get through it rather quickly and get the main bullet points from it.

Here are some main points I picked up from it:

1) Pick on someone bigger than you – You will never grow if you don’t go after the big boys. Fight any way you can, use marketing tactics that your big competitors would be afraid to be known to use, and get deals with questionable upstarts that may become big hits.

2) Do the Hippy, Hippy Shake – a hippy capitalist, Richard is a guy that works hard and plays hard. He inspires his staff to do the same, having big parties and long nights in the office. Get everyone in the organization to buy in.

3) Haggle – everything is negotiable – one thing about Richard Branson seems to be his ability to negotiate. Another thing is, he doesn’t give shares in his parent company Virgin very easily, Instead he sets up new companies where the shares are divided between the businessmen. Interesting…

4) Make Work fun – like I said up above, Richard has his team buy into the company idea. He says “people work cheaper if they like it”. Its not just money that has people work hard for a company, its about achieving a mutual goal. Inspire others, create energy in the company. Praise instead of criticize, motivate others.

5) Don’t lead sheep, herd cats – this chapter really inspired me. If you have a team of independent workers, let them take ownership of a project. Make a team of ENTREPRENEURS within your company. Master of Mayhem, Branson allows the teams to run independently, his Virgin network operates pretty independently, and Branson becomes an “orchestrator of chaos”, as if it were a rock band.

6) Move faster then a speeding bullet – push people to keep learning new things. challenge your team. When a joint venture opportunity comes to him, he brings the brand and the energy, the other side brings the experience and knowledge.

7) Size does matter – Branson wants to keep his operations to talk on a first name basis, so smaller is better . If the group becomes too big, he splits them up. He wants the workers to be in a startup culture, and have a web of startups. He is a builder of businesses, not a buyer of existing businesses.

8) Never lose the common touch – Branson has charisma. He is charming, and fun to be around. His energy brings people to him, and opportunities keep on flowing. Even though he is a billionaire now, he is still on the same level as the general public.

This book was an awesome read for me. I didn’t understand the Branson way that much before, and I really connected with his ideas in the book. I hope to apply these to my day to day life…

Hello Mike,I am Brian.Because of SEO,we know each other.By study your article,I agree with you:
A man who never made a mistake, never made anything.
We stay in the world,only once.We do what we like,we enjoy everything we meet.
🙂

yes, it is great to meet you, isn’t the internet unbelievable! haha Look forward to getting to know each other more and cooperation and mutual success!

cheers

Reply

9 years ago

Guest

Brian

We only live once,we only come to the world only once,we do,we can.If we do,life is changed.If we do nothing,life is the same.

Reply

9 years ago

Guest

Piotr

Hey Mike,

I’m gonna read that book now. I love Richard Bransons Spirit and his brand. He seems like a guy that loves to have fun and he takes chances. I think his personality an likeability, attractiveness help him to. people are drawn to him, they believe in him and thats a big part. You’ve gotta take chances but youve also gotta get everyone on board. and he does that exceptionally well.

did you get my email? did you ever get my invite?

Piotr

Reply

9 years ago

Guest

Echo Zhang

Hi Mike,i do not know who is Richard Branson,but i heared the same point of 1)2)3)4)6). Do not really understand about 5) and 7). i guess you can lend this book to me.

hey Piotr, glad you like it, Branson is a badass, right! I didn’t get the invite….my US mail has been getting….piled up and never relayed to me….scanner problems there. Hi Echo, Richard Branson is a famous entrepreneur / businessman from the UK. for #5 – don’t lead sheep, herd cats – it means have more leaders in your company, not just people who do whatever you say. That means, if you have a good leader in one department of the company, he/she can take control and not ask you, the owner, questions every day. They will run it as if… Read more »

I believe Richard Branson is the ultimate businessman. Really admire the way he sets a goal(however far fetched it may seem at the time), focuses completely on achieving it and in some unique and brilliant way manages to get it done.
His humanitarian side is also pretty amazing considering the risks he has taken while trying to do some good in this world.

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Passionate for helping more like-minded internet entrepreneurs create the future of their dreams. Love international business & connecting people. Working on more ways to give hard working people global opportunities. Check out Mike's latest projects.